Aotearoa New Zealand's rapidly growing aerospace sector is still in its infancy, which presents us with the unique opportunity to incorporate sustainability as a key performance parameter from the outset. Through surveys and interviews with key stakeholder groups, we show that currently, the sector largely deprioritises environmental sustainability and compliance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi in favour of economic growth. Actors are not incentivised to consider any aspects of sustainability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis is a rare, complex autoimmune condition. Although ANCAs have a pathogenic role, they are considered a suboptimal biomarker of disease activity. Previous studies suggest differences in clinical phenotypes and outcomes in those without detectable circulating autoantibody.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuch of high-level cognition appears inaccessible to consciousness. Countless studies have revealed mental processes-like those underlying our choices, beliefs, judgments, intuitions, etc.-which people do not notice or report, and these findings have had a widespread influence on the theory and application of psychological science.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople routinely choose between options varying on multiple attributes - homes to rent, movies to watch, and so on. Here, we test how much awareness people have of the mental processes underlying these choices. We develop a method to quantify awareness of value-based multi-attribute choice processes that accounts for diverse choice strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetabolomics measures low molecular weight endogenous metabolites and changes linked to contaminant exposure in biota. However, few studies have explored the relationship between metabolomics and contaminants in Arctic wildlife. We analyzed 239 endogenous metabolites and ∼150 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including total mercury (THg), in the liver of polar bears and their ringed seal prey harvested from low Canadian Arctic (western Hudson Bay; WHB) and high Arctic (HA) locations during 2015-2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is associated with significant morbidity, fatigue, pain and poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This review aims to assess the comprehensiveness of existing patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) used in AAV and identify associations with poorer HRQoL outcomes.
Methods: A literature review of studies using PROMs, including those labelled HRQoL in people with AAV as a primary or secondary study outcome were screened and reviewed up to July 2023.
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), comprising a significant portion of the human transcriptome, serve as vital regulators of cellular processes and potential disease biomarkers. However, the function of most lncRNAs remains unknown, and furthermore, existing approaches have focused on gene-level investigation. Our work emphasizes the importance of transcript-level annotation to uncover the roles of specific transcript isoforms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Psychol Gen
December 2023
People can predict their scores on the Implicit Association Test with remarkable accuracy, challenging the traditional notion that implicit attitudes are inaccessible to introspection and suggesting that people might be aware of these attitudes. Yet, major open questions about the mechanism and scope of these predictions remain, making their implications unclear. Notably, people may be inferring their attitudes from externally observable cues (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKey Points: The contribution of IV methylprednisolone to glucocorticoid toxicity is often overlooked with limited evidence supporting its use. Markedly reduced cumulative glucocorticoid dosing for remission induction therapy in AAV is safe and effective. Reduced IV methylprednisolone and radical steroid avoidance strategies have not been shown to have any significant adverse effect on outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFocal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a common cause of nephrotic syndrome and whilst advances have been made in the pathophysiology, diagnostics and management of other podocytopathies, primary FSGS remains the most elusive. It has been assumed for a long time that a circulatory permeability factor exists that mediates podocyte injury, and the potential for autoantibody-mediated disease therefore raises the question as to whether patients may benefit from targeted B-cell therapy with rituximab. The prospective case series of seven patients by Roccatello adds to the limited but growing evidence suggesting that B-cell depletion therapy can be safe and effective in the treatment of primary FSGS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBest Pract Res Clin Rheumatol
March 2023
Background: ANCA-negative pauci-immune glomerulonephritis (PIGN) represents a rare and often under-studied subgroup of the vasculitides. This study aims to investigate differences in the clinical phenotype, renal histological features, and clinical outcomes of patients with PIGN, with and without serum ANCA positivity.
Methods: A cohort of biopsy-proven PIGN with and without detectable circulating ANCA was constructed from a single center between 2006 and 2016.
Environ Sci Process Impacts
October 2022
Time series of contaminants in the Arctic are an important instrument to detect emerging issues and to monitor the effectiveness of chemicals regulation, based on the assumption of a direct reflection of changes in primary emissions. Climate change has the potential to influence these time trends, through direct physical and chemical processes and/or changes in ecosystems. This study was part of an assessment of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), analysing potential links between changes in climate-related physical and biological variables and time trends of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic biota, with some additional information from the Antarctic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
September 2022
Temporal trend analysis of (total) mercury (THg) concentrations in Arctic biota were assessed as part of the 2021 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Mercury Assessment. A mixed model including an evaluation of non-linear trends was applied to 110 time series of THg concentrations from Arctic and Subarctic biota. Temporal trends were calculated for full time series (6-46 years) and evaluated with a particular focus on recent trends over the last 20 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
August 2022
Global climate change has led to profound alterations of the Arctic environment and ecosystems, with potential secondary effects on mercury (Hg) within Arctic biota. This review presents the current scientific evidence for impacts of direct physical climate change and indirect ecosystem change on Hg exposure and accumulation in Arctic terrestrial, freshwater, and marine organisms. As the marine environment is elevated in Hg compared to the terrestrial environment, terrestrial herbivores that now exploit coastal/marine foods when terrestrial plants are iced over may be exposed to higher Hg concentrations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurons in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) encode many aspects of the sensory world (e.g., scene structure), the posture of the body, and plans for action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCausal relationships, unlike mere co-occurrence, allow humans to obtain rewards and avoid punishments by intervening on their environment. Accordingly, explicit (controlled) evaluations of stimuli encountered in the environment are known to be sensitive to causal relationships above and beyond mere co-occurrence. In this project, we conduct stringent tests of whether implicit (automatic) evaluation also reflects causal relationships and begin to probe the representational mechanisms underlying such sensitivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is an autoimmune disease. Induction remission and maintenance treatment typically includes high-dose, tapering glucocorticoids (GC), in addition to other immunosuppressive medication. The use of theGlucocorticoid Toxicity Index (GTI) provides a global, quantifiable assessment tool in which clinicians can assess GC-associated morbidity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Kidney J
April 2022
The association between cardiovascular (CV) disease and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is well documented. The recent work by Massicotte-Azarniouch . confirms the risk and adds to the existing evidence by describing the highest risk in the first 3 months after diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
July 2022
There has been a considerable number of reports on Hg concentrations in Arctic mammals since the last Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) effort to review biological effects of the exposure to mercury (Hg) in Arctic biota in 2010 and 2018. Here, we provide an update on the state of the knowledge of health risk associated with Hg concentrations in Arctic marine and terrestrial mammal species. Using available population-specific data post-2000, our ultimate goal is to provide an updated evidence-based estimate of the risk for adverse health effects from Hg exposure in Arctic mammal species at the individual and population level.
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